Maya S Krishnan Premiers Satirical Stand-Up Show Pomblel in Alwarpet
Actor and theatre practitioner Maya S Krishnan premiered her solo stand-up comedy special, 'Pomblel', at Medai — The Stage in Alwarpet on Sunday. Featuring her popular comic persona 'Manjula', the interactive show delivered a satirical mock lecture on 'Kalacharam' (culture) to challenge societal misogyny and sexism.
During the performance, the Alwarpet audience participated actively rather than remaining passive spectators. Attendees rose to wish the character a good evening as the lecture unfolded chapter by chapter, examined distributed "study material," and were ultimately bestowed with mock degrees. Krishnan also performed a self-written song and dove into the crowd to be carried across the room.
The character of 'Manjula' was originally created during a task inside the Bigg Boss Tamil house a couple of seasons back. Krishnan designed the persona to call out sexism by adopting the voice of the oppressor and exaggerating its logic to the point of absurdity. Following her time on the reality show, Krishnan produced short-form videos of Manjula on social media, which went viral with sketches addressing topics like how women should laugh demurely and why menstruation must remain a closely guarded secret.
Transitioning the character to a live stage show was an organic evolution for Krishnan, who has toured 100 to 200 shows of physical comedy plays. She has a history of writing her own lines for contemporary theatre and finding her voice while performing koothu. Krishnan noted that writing for a live stage required a different approach than digital videos, which rely on edits, memes, and music to fix boring sets.
Despite having three house-full shows booked before she even finished writing, Krishnan completed the script in seven days. This was followed by rehearsals, last-minute rewrites, and testing the jokes with friends. Krishnan stated that she wanted her work to be political and address the state of the world, using humour as her catalyst.
Following the Alwarpet premiere, Krishnan is scheduled to perform her next show at the Music Academy on August 15.
